political participation

Conducted by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and carried out by FAMM Indonesia, a women's organization co-created and accompanied by JASS, this research paper delves into the topic of young women's participation in politics and public spaces. Though intensely marginalized and subject to backlash, this study finds that young women may overcome the closing of space through creative community organizing that strengthens self-esteem, builds infromal relationships, and increases leadership capabilities.

I read Ngugi wa Thiongo’s The Trial of Dedani Kimathi years back when I was still in lower secondary school. The character that sticks with me most since that time is the woman political activist who works to support the liberation movement. She smuggles a gun into the courtroom by storing it in a loaf of bread with its insides removed expertly for that purpose. She is an ordinary market woman but uses her agency as part of the formidable people’s liberation movement to unseat colonialism in Kenya.

As JASS in Mesoamerica, Southern Africa, and Southeast Asia, we express our collective concern about the growing violence, violations of basic political and civil rights, and deterioration of democratic institutions in Honduras in the context of the very contested elections.

"What does 'women's empowerment' mean?" JASS Southern Africa's Shereen Essof and Maggie Mapondera sound off on the African Union's recent appointment of President Robert Mugabe as Chair and pledge to put women's empowerment at the top of the agenda.

Dudziro Nhengu gives us a glimpse of life in Harare as elections approach and shares insights on the contradictions and complexities of (women's) resistance in a challenging, often violent and repressive context.

On 6 and 7 April 2009, Berliana Purba & Dina Lumbantobing of PESADA and Niken Lestari of JASS SEA held two workshops. The first, in Teluk Dalam, the capital of South Nias, involved 69 women and 6 men, while the second, in Gunung Sitoli, the capital of Nias Induk, involved 50 women and 2 men.